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Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Gorgeous Autochromes of the Daughters of Lumière Brothers, c. 1909-1910

Louis Lumière had already invented instant photographic plates and the Cinematograph when, in late 1903, he and his brother Auguste patented a new process for producing colour photographs: the Autochrome. A new plant was built in 1905 exclusively for this production and after several years the marketing of the product was launched in 1907.

It was a commercial success and the Autochrome plate remained without real competition for about thirty years. Thousands of photographs were taken all over the world with this process considered by Louis Lumière as his masterpiece.

When testing his first manually produced colors plates, Louis Lumière used his family circle as one of the first subjects for the Autochrome. After the launch of the plates, the Lumière brothers would simply and naturally take many photographs of the family in colors, during privileged moments such as holidays and everyday life, and to shoot portraits.